St. Xavier, Elder High School baseball players show another side of a sometimes ugly rivalry
Apr 19, 2018We rightfully made a huge fuss over the errant behavior of Elder students at a home basketball game a few months back. Here is the other side of the story, courtesy of reader Bob Berger. Thank you, Bob. We need to hear these stories, too.Mr Daugherty,My name is Rob Berger and I would like to let you know about something that transpired between Elder HS and ST X HS recently. It is nothing of horrible name calling, or priests being inappropriate. It is one of good outstanding young men, helping a family get through a difficult time.On April 9, on the baseball field at St X. The Elder JV team was there to play the St X JV team. The game was cruising along in a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth when my father was stricken with an aortic aneurysm burst while attending the game. He was there to watch his grandson pitch, which he had been doing since his grandson was 8 yrs old.While Elder was warming up, my father passed out into my arms and he was immediately being worked on. Fans from both teams frantically began to work on him. The lifesquad was called and he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital. As the paramedics were attending to my father, I caught a glimpse of the field and saw both teams in their respective dugouts praying. A few moments later they were gathered together at home plate praying together. The game was suspended, to be finished April 25, and the teams went home for the night.I traveled to the hospital with my father where he died the next day. I could not get the vision of the 2 teams praying together (out of my mind). I had all other things racing through my mind but that image kept appearing. Throughout the next few days, my son and I received hundreds of messages of sympathy and well wishes from parents, players, students, and teachers from the entire Elder community. It was very powerful and overwhelming, all the support my family was receiving.Fast forward to Sunday, April 15 and the afternoon of the funeral. As a typical West Si... (Cincinnati.com (blog))
